


Cat's Cradle

by gamerkitty6274



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Adoption Centre AU, Angst, Eli the master matchmaker, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Rin isn't allergic to cats in this fic just deal with it, Volunteer!Rin, i guess??, maki is a gay tomato
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 11:16:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11035077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gamerkitty6274/pseuds/gamerkitty6274
Summary: Maki paused at that. She wanted to tell her everythin would be okay, but she couldn't because everythingwouldn'tbe okay.





	Cat's Cradle

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is something I've wanted to publish for a while. Chapter 2 of Apple blossom & sea proofread version should be up soon!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maki mentally facepalmed. Why was she so weak at the sight of cute girls?

Maki sighed and began fiddling with her hair. Why was Eli taking so _long_? Honestly, if she hadn't insisted on picking the perfect puppy for Alisa's birthday present Maki wouldn't be stuck here in the waiting room of the adoption centre with an overly salty Nico, who had started to ignore her and play games on her phone instead. To be fair, the blonde did say she might take a while and the cute girl at the desk (with two black mini buns that Maki just  _loved_ ) said they could go and look around if they wanted to. 

She stood up with another sigh, deciding to leave her bag for Nico to look after. She gave her a nudge. "Nico-chan." Nico didn't look up from her phone. "Nico-chan." Another poke. When the black-haired girl still ignored her she swallowed back an annoyed scowl and threw her bag onto Nico's lap, getting a yelp from Nico, making her drop her phone. It fell onto the floor as the game said something about faililng a live show. 

"Maki!" Nico yelled. "My combo! I was just about to full combo this song on master-"

"Yeah, yeah." Maki grumbled. "I'm going to have a walk around, look at some animals. You coming?"

"Can't be bothered." Nico muttered. She had picked up her phone again and was tapping at the screen furiously. Maki recognised the tune- a hit song on youtube called _Otome Shiki Ren'ai Juku._ "You just wasted so much of my LP and I have to restart damn you Maki-" 

The redhead sighed for the third time and walked off into a section headed _Hamsters_. There were a few people there- two volunteer girls who were changing the food and a couple trying to decide which to get. They were pretty cute-  the hamsters, not the volunteers, Maki thought desperately even though one girl was _clearly_ looking at her- but nothing caught her interest too much. She didn't want to go to the dog section; Eli would make her stay and pick for her and that was the last thing she wanted. She wasn't really too interested in rabbits so she decided to walk over to the Cat section. 

The cat section was by far the most crowded. There were what, 10? 15? 20 or so cats, all being taken care of by one girl. As Maki got closer, she jumped up and smiled. "Hi! Are you planning to adopt a cat?" She was almost nose to nose with Maki. There was a slight height difference so that her orange hair was almost tickling Maki's forehead. She took a step back, and as she did so she saw that her name tag read _Rin_. 

"N-no," Maki stammered. "I'm just here to look at some cats. My friend is looking at the dogs and I thought I'd pass some time." The girl's face fell and Maki instantly regretted it (certaintly not because she was cute and Maki was a sucker for cute, innocent looking girls). it probably took Rin a lot of dedication to look after this many cats on her own, and from the way the cats rubbed against her legs she'd probably been working at the shelter for a while.

"Oh. Well in that case, you're welcome to stay!" Rin's face brightened up as almost as quickly as it had been saddened. "I'll introduce you to the cats." _Wait. What-_  But before Maki could think anything more of it Rin grabbed her hand and motioned for her to squat down. Maki obliged, watching Rin beckon each cat over for Maki to stroke.

"This one's Chika." A fluffy ginger cat almost leapt up on to her face and Maki almost stumbled, but Rin caught it before it could do anything. "Sorry," the girl apologised. "Chika's very energetic. She'll calm down if you stroke her." Maki reached out and petted Chika on her head, earning a purr. She was surprised at how quickly Chika calmed down as the ginger cat was slowly reduced to a purring, ginger fluffball. 

"Yeah, Chika's very easy to please. She falls asleep if you pet her too much." Rin laughed. A grey and white cat with blue eyes padded over to where Chika was curled up. "That one's called You. We found her almost the same time we found Chika so they're almost sisters."

Rin began pointing out all the different cats to her. The russet tabby who sometimes played with Chika and You but mostly watched on the side was Riko; the tortoiseshell tabby who seemed too shy to join in was called Ruby ("She's been sick for a while, so she doesn't like physical things too much." Rin explained. "She mostly plays with Hanamaru and Yoshiko though."); Hanamaru, a golden brown cat almost as small as Ruby and Yoshiko, a light grey with darker flecks were almost always together, though Ruby was always nearby (Rin said the shelter didn't realise Yoshiko was already named so sometimes she only answers to Yohane). Dia was black with a white tail tip and was always watching over the other cats like their mother. According to Rin, Dia was Ruby's older sister so they slept together at night. Watching the cats almost made Maki forget Rin was there. Almost.

"That russian blue's Kanan. I don't know how, but she can swim and dive really well. See the yellowish one over there? her name is Mari. She's a real troublemaker, but she's also really sweet." Rin smiled and Maki almost blushed before mentally facepalming. Why did she have to be such a stupid gay tomato? She needed to get out of here before she embarassed herself. 

"Thanks for showing me the cats, Rin." She said aloud.

"Oh? Are you leaving?" Asked Rin. Her smiled faded a little and Maki thought, maybe it couldn't hurt to stay a little longer...

"No! I mean, no, but thanks." Maki said quickly. Rin smiled again, but this time a more knowing smile, like _I-know-you-messed-up-but-that's-okay-I-do-it-too_. 

"Hey, now that we've talked about the cats, how about we talk about ourselves?" Rin said suddenly. 

"Oh, uh, sure." Maki was a bit surprised at the sudden question; after all, Maki was more of Rin's customer than someone interesting to talk to, but she was bored with nothing else to do. 

"Great!" Rin broke into another one of those beaming smiles of hers (She smiled a lot, Maki thought). "Sit down." she patted one of the cushions next to her and Maki sat down gingerly. She looked around the room as she waited for the ginger to ask her a question. _Huh.. I wouldn't mind getting one of these cats_.

"Ask me something."

"Huh?" Maki blinked. 

"I said, ask me a question. Or do you want me to go first?" Rin gave her a mischevious grin. 

"Oh, um, okay." She had to think about this one. "How come you're volunteering here?"

"Well, I was walking down the street to go to my favourite ramen shop, and I just saw this poster saying volunteer needed for the cat section here and since I loved cats I ran all the way over here and filled in the form and here I am! I" She said it all in one breath. "I'm usually here after school and on weekends. My turn now! Hmm...  When's your birthday?" 

"You want to know that?" Maki laughed. Rin frowned. 

"Can't I ask that?"

"No, I just thought you'd ask something more complicated than that, I guess. It's April 19th. When's yours?"

"November 1st. What school do you go to?"

"Otonokizaka high. I'm a first year. You?" Maki never thought there would be a day where she would be giving out the name of her school to strangers, but Rin was pretty much the same age as she was.

"Oh, uh, just another high school around this part. I'm a first year too." She said vaguely. Maki guessed she didn't exactly want to give out the name of her school just yet, and she understood. "Who's your best friend?"

This went on and on, until Rin suddenly said, "You know..."

"What?" Maki didn't hear the rest."

"Oh, it's nothing." Rin shook her head. She didn't look up and Maki wondered if she had done something wrong.

"Hey, you can tell me." Maki tried to move her head so she could see Rin's face, but it was too awkward of a position.

"I-I said you're one of the nicest people my age I've ever met." Rin lifted her head up, and Maki could see she was blushing. "The other's Kayo-chin... Oh, I mean Hanayo." Maki blushed a bit herself at the compliment, but it also raised all sorts of other questions in her head. She decided not to think too much about it. 

"Thanks." Maki said."Who's Hanayo?"

"She's my best friend. We've been friends since we were in elementary school, so I guess you could call us childhood friends? She's really shy and she volunteers here too."

"Really? What does she look like?"

"She's got pale brown hair, longer than mine but shorter than shoulder length. She wears glasses sometimes." Maki tried to recall someone who looked like that, but failed. "You wouldn't have seen her. We go to different schools now so she only comes in the holidays." 

"Oh." Maki tried to think of something else to say, when her phone buzzed. She took it out of her pocket. It was a text from Eli; in fact, multiple texts from both Eli and Nico. Nico's were slightly earlier and mostly consisted of her name and multiple "Nico Nico Nii!"s. Eli's were a bit more to the point.

_Hi, Maki, Where are you?_

_Maki?_

_What section of the shelter are you in?_

_Maki we need to go_

_Maki_

_Maki can you come to the front of the shelter?_

Maki looked up at the clock, temorarily forgetting the fact the time was right there on her phone. Rin peered over her shoulder curioiusly. Crap. It was already five in the afternoon and they'd been there since 2. "Sorry, Rin, I've got to go."

"Oh, okay. Bye!" Rin gave her a grin. 

"Bye." She got up and was almost at the door when Rin called out.

"Wait!" She turned round.

"What?"

"One last question. Will you.. come again tomorrow?"

Maki blushed. She knew there was only one answer to that question. "Yes."

 

* * *

 

 

"What took you so long?" Nico whined as she hurried out of the store. Eli only sighed. 

"Nothing." Maki muttered, the tips of her ears turning red. 


End file.
